Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia

bliss compared with that of women; still, much is
lacking, and the young men of Arabia spend many languid hours
longing for stimulation. There are no movie theaters, clubs, or
mixed dining since men and women are not allowed in restaurants
together unless they are husband and wife, brother and sister, or
father and daughter.
    Muneer, only twenty-two years old and
accustomed to the freedoms of American society, did not relish his
return to Saudi Arabia. He had recently graduated from business
school in Washington, D.C., and had plans to be a liaison for
government contracts. While waiting for his opportunity to prove
his adeptness in acquiring huge sums of money, a passion with all
the royal princes, he began to keep company with a group of princes
within the family known for their risky behavior. They gave and
attended mixed parties. Foreign women of questionable morals who
worked for the various hospitals and airlines were in
attendance.
    Drugs were abundant. Many of these princes
had become addicted to alcohol, drugs, or both. In their drug- or
alcohol-induced haze, their dissatisfaction with their kin who
ruled the land festered. Not content with modernization, they
longed for Westernization; these young men were ardent for
revolution. Not surprisingly, their idleness bred dangerous talk
and conduct, and before long, their revolutionary intrigues were
common knowledge.
    King Faisal, once a carefree youth himself
who was transformed into a pious king, diligently followed the
actions of his young kin and attempted, in his solicitous manner,
to guide the young men of the family from the excesses of empty
lives. Some of the worrisome princes were placed in the family
business while others were sent off to the military.
    After King Faisal spoke of his concern about
Muneer’s unseemly behavior to his father, I heard loud shouting and
angry voices from the study. I, like the other female members of
the family, soon found some urgent task in the map room, directly
opposite the study. With eyes on the maps and ears tuned to the
shouting, we gasped when we heard Muneer accuse the ruling family
of corruption and waste. Muneer swore that he and his friends would
bring the changes so direly needed in the kingdom. With curses on
his lips and a call for rebellion, he stormed out of the villa.
    While Muneer claimed the country needed to
move into the future, his commitment was vague and his real
activities troubling. His was a sad tale of misjudgment; alcohol
and easy money had seduced him.
    Few foreigners today are aware that alcohol
was not banned to nonbelievers (non-Muslims) in the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia prior to 1952. Two separate and tragic events
involving royal princes brought about the ban by our first king,
Abdul Aziz.
    In the late 1940s, Prince Nasir, the son of
our ruler, returned from the United States a different man than the
one who had departed the kingdom. He had discovered the enticement
of the combination of alcohol and uninhibited Western women. In his
assessment, alcohol was the key to idolization by women.
    Since Nasir held the position of governor of
Riyadh, he found few barriers to his ability to maintain secret
supplies of the desired liquid. Nasir held forbidden parties,
entertaining men as well as women. In the summer of 1947, after a
late-night gathering, seven of the partakers died from drinking
wood alcohol. Some of the dead were women.
    Nasir’s father, King Abdul Aziz, became so
incensed at this needless tragedy that he personally beat his son
and ordered him to jail.
    Later, in 1951, when Mishari, another son of
the king, while intoxicated, shot and killed the British pro
vice-consul and almost killed the man’s wife, the old King’s
patience expired. From that time forward, alcohol was banned in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and black-marketing schemes were born.
    The people of Saudi Arabia react to the
prohibited much in the same manner as people of other cultures: The
forbidden becomes even more enticing. Most Saudi men and women I
know drink socially; a large number have acquired serious addiction
to the substance. I have never been in a Saudi home that did not
have a large assortment of the finest and most expensive alcoholic
beverages to offer to guests.
    Since 1952, the cost of alcohol had risen to
SR 650 for a bottle of Scotch ($200). A fortune could be made in
importing and selling the illegal drink. Since Muneer and two
cousins who were high-ranking princes were of the opinion